I can understand most thick accents relatively quickly, but I have a hearing (or brain) problem where I sometimes can't catch an out-of-context word. There, I'll use subtitles. Usually, it's so I understand the *specific word* that didn't make sense (and then it makes perfect sense - "oh, of course they said (whatever)").

Worst TV event ever: Watching Firefly when deeply fatigued. First episode, Mal starts cussing in Chinese, and I feel like I've gone crazy. But that's how bad my processing is - I couldn't realize he'd done a language change.